Alyssa Day - Paranormal Cozy Mysteries Featuring a Tiger Shifter

Alyssa Day is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author with more than a million books sold, and she writes the Warriors of Poseidon and Cardinal Witches paranormal romance series and the Tiger’s Eye Mysteries, a paranormal mystery series. She has won many awards for her writing, including Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA award for outstanding romance fiction and the RT Book Reviews Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Paranormal Romance novel of 2012. As our Author of the Day, she tells us all about her book Dead Eye.

Please give us a short introduction to what Dead Eye is about.

First in the Tiger's Eye Mysteries, a paranormal cozy mystery series, Dead Eye tells the story of Jack Shepherd, a tiger shifter who comes home from the vampire rebellion to his quirky small town to find out who killed his uncle - the only family he has. Tess Callahan, the new owner of his uncle's pawnshop, helps him solve the mystery and helps him find out that he might just have feelings after all. Oh—and it's hysterically funny.

What inspired you to write about a detective who turns into a tiger and a pawnshop owner who can see how you'll die?

I love Jack Shepherd. He was one of the first characters to show up in my Warriors of Atlantis paranormal romance series, and he was part of all ten books. But he was left alone and heartbroken at the end of that series. Readers kept begging for him to get a book, and I wanted to write more about him, so I decided to give him his own series!

Readers say that they fell out of the bed laughing while reading this book - what is your secret to writing great comedy?

My secret is that I’m a funny person. Seriously, I think people who are good at comedy look at the world through different eyes than the 'normal' folks. I like to tell this story to illustrate: I once had a mammogram (which is very uncomfortable, anyway), administered by a very old, maybe five foot tall doctor (I'm almost six feet tall). What was I thinking? "Holy crap, Papa Smurf is feeling me up!!"

Seriously, I just have a twisted brain.

Tell us more about Tess Callahan. What makes her tick?

Tess is a huge-hearted, small-town girl, in the best way. At almost 27 years old, she is finding her independence from a ferociously over-protective family and finding a way to deal with her "curse" – it's hard to meet guys when the slightest touch might tell you how they're going to die!

Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?

I'm a Super Dog Rescuer, Champion Scrabble Player, terrible – TERRIBLE – singer, seriously I can frighten dogs with my singing, and have plans for the #AlyssaDayPugRanch when I retire.

How do you go about deciding on a character's quirks and personality? Are any of them based on real people?

I think all characters are based on real people. As writers, we view the world as enormous machines designed only to feed us input that we then churn around in our brains and ABRACADABRA! Out pop characters. (I might add that Tess, too, is a terrible singer…so bad that once Jack heard her and came screaming in to rescue whoever was being tortured…)

What makes Tess and Jack such a great team?

They each have strengths and flaws that make them human and that complement each other. And they really, truly respect each other, which is important to me. Plus, the attraction between them SPARKLES!!

If this should ever be made into a series or movie, which actress would you pick to play Tess?

Wow. I'd have loved to have Emily Blunt, I love her, but she's probably too busy and too British. Maybe that amazing actress who's in Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, coming up? Jane Levy. She has great comedic timing and beautiful red hair!

Is there an underlying message you wish to relay about basic human nature through your characters?

Family is important—and family comes in all shapes and sizes and definitions. Love is love. Also, if you can keep your sense of humor intact and your friends and family close, you can survive almost anything—even rampaging leprechauns with a taste for peanut butter!

What are you working on right now?

The first in my brand new series!! The VAMPIRE MOTORCYCLE CLUB will launch in July with BANE'S CHOICE, which is the hottest and darkest and most intense paranormal romance I've ever written. I'm so excited about it!! And A DEAD END CHRISTMAS is the latest in the Tiger's Eye Mysteries, which started with the featured book DEAD EYE, and it's so much fun!! When murder comes to the quirky town of Dead End, Florida, only Tess and Jack can save Christmas!!

Where can our readers discover more of your work or interact with you?

Thanks so much for inviting me and for this fun interview. Readers can find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/authoralyssaday/, on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/authoralyssaday/, or at my website https://alyssaday.com/tigers-eye-mysteries/.